The Pediatric infectious disease journal
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Pediatr. Infect. Dis. J. · Jul 2012
Randomized Controlled TrialCommunity-based treatment of serious bacterial infections in newborns and young infants: a randomized controlled trial assessing three antibiotic regimens.
Sepsis in the neonatal period is a major cause of child mortality in low-income countries. Hospitalization and parenteral penicillin/ampicillin and gentamicin therapy are recommended for management. Many families, however, are unable to access hospital care, and most home-delivered newborns who develop sepsis die without receiving antibiotic therapy. Appropriate community-based therapy in such situations is undefined. We compared failure rates of 3 clinic-based antibiotic regimens in 0- to 59-day-old infants with possible serious bacterial infection whose families refused hospitalization in Karachi communities with high neonatal mortality rates>45/1000 live births. ⋯ When hospitalization of sick infants is unfeasible, outpatient therapy with injectable antibiotics is an effective option. Procaine penicillin-gentamicin was superior to TMP-SMX-gentamicin. Ceftriaxone is a more expensive option, and may be less effective, although this requires further research.
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We assessed neutrophil CD64 as a diagnostic marker for neonatal sepsis. For early-onset sepsis, the CD64 index with a cut-point value of 2.38 had sensitivity, specificity and negative predictive values of 100%, 68% and 100%, respectively. For late-onset sepsis, the respective values were 3.62, 75%, 77% and 96%. Neutrophil CD64 index can be incorporated as a valuable marker for excluding neonatal sepsis.
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Pediatr. Infect. Dis. J. · Jul 2012
Retropharyngeal abscess in children: the rising incidence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
Because of a recent upsurge in retropharyngeal abscess (RPA) cases due to community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), we reevaluated the microbiology, clinical manifestations and treatment outcome of RPA over the past 6 years (2004 to 2010). Findings were compared with those of a previous 11-year study (1993 to 2003) period. ⋯ RPA has increased in frequency in our pediatric population with an associated increase of Staphylococcus aureus, mainly community-associated MRSA. This is likely due to the overall increase in community-associated MRSA infections in our pediatric patients. Treatment with ceftriaxone and clindamycin in addition to surgical drainage was effective.